In November 2021, a wild elephant was radio-collared in Sonitpur district of Assam by the Forest Department of Assam in collaboration with the NGO, World Wildlife Fund (WWF)-India. In the near future, the forest department is planning to collar at least five elephants in high-conflict habitats. The forest authorities claim that this step is aimed to study and mitigate human-elephant conflict in the state. However, animal experts opine that the exercise is challenging and it even carries the risk of having a low success rate.
Besides Assam, radio collaring has also been attempted in Chhattisgarh, Odisha, and Tamil Nadu.
Human-Elephant Conflict in Assam
There are around 6,000 wild elephants in Assam. According to the WWF, between 2010 and 2019, around 761 people and 249 elephants were killed in Assam due to direct human-elephant conflict and more than 65 per cent of the elephant habitat in the north of the River Brahmaputra has been lost in the past few decades to agriculture and settlements. Since then, the human-elephant conflict has been on a steady rise.
Radio-Collaring and Its Objectives
Radio collars are GPS-enabled collars which relay information about the whereabouts of the elephants. These collars weigh around eight kilograms and are fitted around the elephant’s neck. The process involves first identifying a suitable adult elephant and then shooting the animal with a dart to administer a sedative drug. Once the animal is sedated, a radio collar is fitted around its neck. An accelerometer is also attached to the collar to understand the activities (walking, eating, running, etc.) of the elephant.
After collaring an elephant, information from its GPS would help the forest authorities to track and study the movement patterns of the heard across regions and habitats. This would also give an idea of the corridors the herd of elephants frequently visit. Furthermore, the forest authorities could understand if the habitat is sufficient or whether elephants need any protection. This would also help in understanding what is driving the conflict.
Moreover, it would help the villagers and the forest officials know in which direction an elephant is moving and they could prepare accordingly, as it would act as an early warning system in mitigating human-elephant conflict incidents.
However, experts feel that the main objective is a long-term study of the movement patterns of elephants. When the habitats are shrinking and the traditional corridors are not in use anymore, elephant collaring would be of much help. It is imperative to study the range of travels and make an inventory of the new habitats, which is possible through radio-collaring.
Radio-Collaring of Elephants in Assam
The Ministry of Environment of Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) gave approval to collar five elephants in Sonitpur and Biwanath districts of Assam in March 2020. However, the ministry clearly laid down many rules and regulations to be followed while carrying out radio-collaring exercise, including that the exercise should cause bare minimum trauma to the elephants during the operation. The forest authorities have to submit regular and periodic reports regarding the same to the ministry from time to time.
The forest department aims to collar 11 elephants for tracking 11 herds in high human-elephant conflict areas, such as Sonitpur, Golaghat, Nagaon, Goalpara, Udalguri, among others. As this is a delicate and complicated exercise, the department has not set any time frame to complete the process.
Challenges and Drawbacks
There are some challenges and drawbacks of radio-collaring. For example, the components, needed for radio collaring, are not readily available in India. The collars and tranquilising drugs are expensive and have to be imported. As the elephants grow in size, the choice of the elephant has to be done correctly as the collars may become tight. Hence, a fully grown adult elephant has to be chosen so that the chance of growth is low.
The topography of Assam is another challenge as it is marked by hills and rivers, and the elephants there are long ranging. There is also a possibility of the collar falling off from the elephant leading to technical glitches of the radio-collaring device—the feeble signal would not give the appropriate location of the animal.
Radio-collaring is also a tedious, time-consuming, and challenging exercise. First, the matriarch of the herd has to be identified by stalking the herd for a long time. Then, there are practical challenges involved in tagging them. For example, there are no sophisticated equipment or helicopters available with the forest department to approach elephants and tranquilise them. So, the forest authorities have to go on foot, which is risky for life of both—the authorities and the elephants.
Despite these challenges and drawbacks, the forest department wants to try this as there is no better mechanism to study the human-elephant conflict in the long run. Moreover, if this exercise works well, it would help reduce the human-elephant conflict.
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